''I was shocked when Chuck asked me to manage the ballclub and to come over as soon as possible to discuss the situation. I thought the worst. I thought: 'What, me too? What did I do.'''

Hired as the Devil Rays' bench coach last November, McRae takes over a team that stumbled to three consecutive last-place finishes under Rothschild and a 4-10 start this season.

He didn't make any bold predictions, just the promise to do whatever he can to turn the club's performance around.

''The only reason you take a job is because you think you can do the job,'' said McRae, who managed Kansas City from May 1991 through 1994, posting winning records in three of his four seasons.

''I feel I'm better prepared to manage now. When I managed in K.C., I hadn't managed before. I had gone from a player to a manager, and my difficulty was I wasn't far enough removed from being a player to manage,'' he said.

''Now, I have some experience. I'm more mature, more understanding and think more like a coach than a player. ... I thought I proved I could manage my final year in Kansas City, which was too little, too late.''

He played 19 major league seasons with the Royals and Cincinnati Reds, batting over .300 six times and appearing in four World Series. He was 286-277 as manager of the Royals and spent six seasons as a hitting instructor for Cincinnati and Philadelphia before accepting a job with the Devil Rays last fall.

Rothschild's firing, the first of the 21/2-week-old season, came in the wake of the Devils Rays' 10-0 loss to Boston in their 499th game. He had been the manager for every one, compiling a 205-294 record.

''Hopefully we hit rock bottom and from here it will change,'' the 47-year-old manager said after the game, in which Tampa Bay made two more errors and allowed six unearned runs to boost its total to 24 in 14 games.

First-base coach Jose Cardenal also was let go. Bullpen coach Terry Collins was shifted to third base coach; third base coach Billy Hatcher moved to bench coach; Lee May replaced Cardenal at first base; and Darren Daulton was promoted from catching instructor to bullpen coach.

LaMar, who concedes he has made some poor personnel decisions that have impeded the club's progress, said there was no single reason for Rothschild's dismissal. He insisted the move wasn't made because of the team's record or a growing rift in the clubhouse between the players and former manager.

''I felt the team under Larry competed as hard as it could compete up until the last two weeks,'' said LaMar, who stunned many -- including Rothschild -- when he retained the manager after last season.

''I know we've gotten off to a tough start and it would be easy to say Larry's the scapegoat. But that's not the case. ... Our personnel decisions, good and bad, have been well documented, so it wasn't based so much on wins and losses as it was just a feeling that this club needed to head in a different direction.''

Rothschild was hired as the Devil Rays' first manager after serving as pitching coach for the then-World Series champion Florida Marlins.

The Devil Rays were nearly flawless in opening the season with an 8-1 victory over Toronto, but it was pretty much all downhill after that. After playing sloppily and losing the second game of the series 11-8, the Blue Jays took the finale 11-0.

The skid reached seven games when the Devil Rays dropped the first five games on a 10-game, 11-day road trip that may have sealed Rothschild's fate. The team not only looked bad losing, but third baseman Vinny Castilla was benched and asked to be traded or released, and center-fielder Gerald Williams was sat down for two games after a dugout confrontation with the manager.

LaMar said the decision to fire Rothschild was made Tuesday. He described his meeting afterward with the manager as ''tough and short.''

McRae learned of the move from one of the other Devil Rays coaches. He said he spoke with Rothschild twice Wednesday and would continue to consult with the former manager during the transition.

Managing general partner Vince Naimoli said the change was made by LaMar and he supported it.

''Any time you go through a situation like this, it's painful,'' Naimoli said. ''Larry Rothschild is an outstanding individual. I have great respect for him.''